Week 3

3-17-12 (Saturday)
Saturday was interesting.  We had "tool" training all day.  Basically we went back to the two houses that we had worked on gutting the week before and worked on some rebuilding of those houses.  Mostly it was prep work for making the houses livable again.  Most of what my team and I were working on was pulling nails off the studs so that drywall could be hung.  Also, we worked on supporting some of the studs with L-braces.  After lunch we were able to hang some insulation and a 4x12 sheet of drywall.  It was nice to be doing construction again.

3-18-12 (Sunday)
This morning a group of us went to an African Methodist Episcopal Church.  It was interesting and the members of the church were very welcoming.  The church was very glad to see us there as visitors.  I really enjoyed the sermon.  It was about Josiah and how he repented and turned toward God.  The pastor kept making the point that there is nothing new under the sun and that God has a special plan for each one of our lives if only we will dig deep enough to find it.

3-19-12 (Monday)
We had classes in the morning, then headed out for a camping trip in the afternoon.  We went to Holly Springs National Forest.  Even though we got lost on the way to the park, we were still able to get a good campsite.  It was next to the lake with a dock at the site.  By the time that our supplies came--they were packed in a cargo van for the whole group, not just our team)--it was dark.  It made for a very long day by the time we finally ate supper and set up our tents.

3-20-12 (Tuesday)
We worked most of the day digging up campsites that were rarely used.  It involved smashing concrete and taking apart picnic tables.  A fun day, but physically intense.  As we went to make supper, we found out that the main part of supper somehow had never been packed to take camping.  Therefore most of the team went shopping for supper, I was too tired to go shopping and stayed at the campsite.  By the time they got back with food, it was pretty late.  Again, a very long day.  We decided to sleep on the dock instead of in the tents that night.  It was nice to look up at the stars, but it was a bad night sleep wise.

3-21-12 (Wednesday)
Ropes course day--we were kinda robbed though, a rain storm came in well we were still at the course.  I enjoyed doing all of the low elements, and pushed myself through my fear of heights and climbed a 30 foot wall and zip-lined to the bottom.  It was really scary, but I had fun doing it and would do it again!

3-22-12 (Thursday)
We went to Jackson because the state congress wanted to give us an award.  My team was not one of the teams chosen to be presented with the award.  Instead, we went to the old Capitol building, which had been converted into a museum.  I really enjoyed touring the museum.  In the afternoon we had some more classes for specialty role training.  Dave and I are what is called VST (vehicle, safety, tools), basically, we are in charge of the van, safety wherever we are, and taking care of the tools.  Heidi and I are Peer Helpers, which is basically like a counselor only without all the training--we are there for the members of the team and if need be refer them to a team leader or the counselor.  It was also one of my team-mates (Alex) birthday.  His parents had arraigned to get him a cake for his birthday and Max (our team leader) let me in on the secret and picked it up from the office and hid it.  It was a fun night.

3-23-12 (Friday)
In the morning we had our last PT as a Corps.  Afterwards we worked on a presentation that we needed to present that day.  Max also asked me (spur of the moment) to be his assistant team leader for this project.  It wasn't really a shock that he asked me, it was more of the short notice and the added sense of responsibility that threw me for a loop for a little bit.  The rest of the day was spent in meeting aver meeting.  After the meetings, I fell asleep until supper time, then went straight to bed after supper.